[Quantitative evaluation of CT-MRI images of various tumors with expansive or infiltrative growth pattern].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate quantitatively the proliferation of tumors in characteristic of either expansive or infiltrative growth pattern.


METHODS
The CT/MRI images of 34 tumor patients with 6 different pathological types were adopted to undergo quantitative evaluation of the growth pattern of these tumors. Three key parameters, fractal dimension (Df) of the border between the tumor and neighboring tissues, degree of heterogeneity (H), and clumsiness (C) inside the tumor, were computed numerically.


RESULTS
The Df values of the infiltrative tumors were higher than those of the expansive tumors, thus revealing the more evident complexity and openness of the border of infiltrative tumor. Heterogeneity and clumsiness existed within both expansive and infiltrative tumors. The clumsiness derived from heterogeneity and they were correlated positively with each other. The growth coefficient of clumsiness of the expansive tumor was greater than that of the infiltrative tumor.


CONCLUSIONS
The method to analyze the fractal dimension of tumor border, and degrees of heterogeneity and clumsiness within a tumor presented in this paper gives some enlightenment to the fundamental research in characterizing tumor growth and shows practical value in clinical diagnosis of tumor, and may be of benefit to the quantitative evaluation of radiological images and computer-aided diagnosis.
Shac
Yuan-zhi
YZ
Department of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
Liu
Li-zhi
LZ
Wang
Feng-hua
FH
Cui
Chun-yan
CY
Bie
Meng-jie
MJ
Zhong
Wei-rong
WR
Li
Li
L
D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D047368:Tumor Burden